When a communication device first powers on, the device may be arranged to engage in registration signaling with one or more network entities. Such signaling may function to notify the network that the device is connected, and to give the network an opportunity to authenticate and authorize the device, so that the network may then provide the device with service. For example, when a wireless communication device first powers on, the device may register with a radio access network to facilitate being served by that network, and so that the network will know where the device is located. As another example, when a device powers on and becomes connected with a packet-switched network, the device may register with a packet-gateway and/or a mobile internet protocol (mobile-IP) system to facilitate being served by the packet-switched network. Other examples are possible well.
In practice, after a device initially registers with a network, the network may require the device to reregister periodically or to engage in other network communication as a way of establishing that the device is still connected with the network. If the network does not receive expected reregistration signaling from the device or detects the absence of activity by the device for a threshold period of time, for instance, the network may conclude that the device is no longer connected with the network and may automatically deregister the device. Furthermore, when a device is powering off, the device may be arranged to engage in deregistration signaling with the network, to notify the network that the device is disconnecting from the network, so that the network may similarly deregister the device.
In some cases, a communication device may run a network process that facilitates the device's network registration. A network process may be a stored set of computer instructions that is operable to facilitate network registration. For example, the network process may be a computer program, a set of passive instructions, or a computer application that initiates and directs registration signaling between the device and network entities. The device may start the network process when powering on, and then the network process may facilitate the initial registration signaling with the network. Then, while the device is operating, the network process may continue to manage the device's network registration, for instance, by sending reregistration signaling and/or by responding to network changes (e.g., registering with a new network in response to detecting that the device has moved into a new coverage area). The network process may also function to deregister the device when it disconnects from the network (e.g., when the device powers off or user-input directs the device to disconnect from the network).
In some cases, the network process may stop while the device is still in a power-on state. For instance, a user may activate a process-kill function to stop the network process or the device may enter a non-signaling state (e.g., “airplane mode” or “offline mode”) that stops the network process. When the network process restarts, the process may again initiate registration signaling in much the same way that registration is performed after the device powers on.